What aunt_zelda Thinks: The Review Must Go On

[aunt_zelda]

First, the comment I want to post on tgwtg.com, but either my internet is weird or it's not letting me post for some reason:

So, the character development and emotional tumultuous ending of To Boldly Flee, the nice closure, the crying from fans and the ultimate satisfying conclusion ... that's all been tossed out the window? That meant nothing? People who were genuinely moved by the ending of To Boldly Flee ... just don't count?

No, of course, listen to the whiners, the haters, the people who dismissed Demo Reel not for legit concerns about writing or character development but because it "wasn't new episodes of Nostalgia Critic."

Demo Reel was finally starting to kick ass, those last couple episodes? So awesome.
So now all those characters are dead. And Donnie was just the Critic all along. So it was all ultimately pointless, these past few months don't matter at all. Heck, To Boldly Flee doesn't matter at all either, apparently Because some people wouldn't stop whining about every episode of Demo Reel "not being a new Nostalgia Critic episode."

This video made me cry, but not tears of joy. This legitimately upset me. You seemed so bitter, so unwilling, the NC had to actually badger you into insanity to get you to go back to this. Is this truly what you want to do, or are you just caving to the vocal minority demanding something old and familiar over something new and different?

You said you'd wanted to do Demo Reel for years. I hate to think that some whiners ate away at your confidence these past couple months until you gave in to their demands.

First, this made me cry. Then it made me angry. Now ... now I'm just sad.

If this is truly what you want, Mr. Walker, that's your decision. But I'm going to have to respectfully disagree with it.

Here's what I typed as I watched, taking things very personally and pausing to sob in a rather frightening manner. Seriously, a lot of people on my floor were concerned about me when I went to go get my kettle from the Common Room after I wrote this

WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS MEAN-SPIRITED DOCTOR WHO PLOT DEVICE BULLSHIT?!?!?!?!??!?!?!
[Edit: I meant Doctor Who plot device as in, there are people disappearing and it's scary, I did not mean that Doctor Who routinely uses mean-spirited plot devices or bullshit.]

I am actually screaming "WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?!?!??!?!?" and "WHAT IS THIS BULLSHIT?!?!?!?" and "NO YOU CAN'T DO THIS!!!!!!!" and I'm yelling in the dorms. So everyone on this floor probably thinks I'm insane.

And then Carl turned into Rob with a dinosaur head? I think?

And then I yelled "NO!" a lot. And pointed at the screen in anger.

Great idea Doug. Make an emotional and satisfying end for the Critic that made everyone cry and mourn and respect you and made a few assholes complain about you deciding to branch out and do something new and creative …

... and just undo the awesome ending you crafted. Brutally and cruelly kill off all the characters you spent several episodes making us love.

What the … fuck. I can't even swear creatively right now. This isn't funny. This is sad. And upsetting.

I CRIED about the ending of To Boldly Flee. The ramifications of that ending, and through the fandom, during that final month of this summer, when some truly awful stuff happened in my life with my family … I think it made me incredibly and deeply sad for quite some time. I was kinda scared for a while there, mostly because of my family stuff but also about how even THINKING of "Rocket Man" made me burst into tears and stuff. Know what got me out of that funk? Working on a script of my own and making a movie of my own with some fantastic friends of mine at college. Living the reality that making movies is a fun thing, what I want to do, something I was writing an essay on because I wanted to SWITCH MY MAJOR and spent the summer and last semester doing that. 

How dare you, Doug. HOW DARE YOU CAVE. After years of dealing with assholes on the internet, you cave to the pressure of a few cranky people who can't seem to understand that artists like to move on and try new things?! You said you wanted to do Demo Reel for years, and you finally bought a studio and got new people and … Demo Reel was just starting to hit its curve …

(On a sidenote, Nella has an adorable car. Awwwww. Tiny car is adorable!)

(Also, I like the paint in Doug's house. Or … whatever house this was filmed at, if this isn't his house. I like the colors.)

And then I'm crying and yelling "No! NO! How can you do this?! Don't do this!"

This is filmed so creepily. He is giving in to a psychotic vision making demands that badgered him relentlessly and showed up creepily in his mirror until he gave in. That's like the most awful way to bring back a beloved character who sacrificed himself bravely for the good of the world and his friends …

So then I started crying and whimpering "why would you do this?!"

Donnie was the Critic all along? Huh?

"Your mind wouldn't believe you were capable of such a selfless act."
…
…
…
[Edit: the face I made there was something you had to see to believe. It was rather something like those Rage Comic faces, in fact. I also had to pause because that line made me sob and cry and whimper "whyyyyyyyyyyy" and "noooo" and variations on those words.]
 
So this is all a big "fuck you" to everyone who cared about the ending of To Boldly Flee, was moved by it, thought it was great character development, or cried at it, or made heartfelt comments or posts online or made videos about how much it meant to them?

I'm a little scared of how hard and hysterically I'm crying right now. I had to take a break for a minute. I can't remember the last time I cried this hard. Oh, right, LES MISERABLES. 
[Edit: And somehow, I still came out of that film uplifted somewhat, singing and whimpering, sobbing and cheering. I got none of those positive emotions from this video, only the pain and the crying parts.]

This is like a nightmare.

He seems to think this is a triumphant return and it's playing like a bitter, horrible, spiteful, depressing, mean spirited pile of pretentious ignorant HORSESHIT.

And all the characters from Demo Reel get absorbed and FUCKING DIE.


Fuck you, Doug Walker. Now everyone on my floor thinks I'm going insane.

Thoughts after all of that:

First I was crying and begging and hoping against hope that no, no, this couldn't be what it was, he was gonna do some kinda twist, save them, do something, say "No, the Nostalgia Critic sacrificed himself to save the world, I don't know what kind of drug-induced bullshit this is, but I'm not having it!" and he'd kick the Plot Hole away and wake up after a drinking binge with the Demo Reel crew and tell Quinn "remind me never to chug tequila and vodka simultaneously" and that'd be the end of it. 

But it wasn't. 

I don't know what this is. Is he just caving to popular (or not so popular) opinion? Is the site traffic lagging that badly? Does he genuinely miss it? He seemed so ... unwilling. Reluctant. If this was supposed to be a triumphant return, he sure shot it like a terrifying battle between himself and a psychotic haunting specter that he ultimately lost.

Maybe it's genuine, maybe he got burned out and took a break and then wanted to get back into things. But I disagree with him even if he isn't just doing this because of fan opinions. He gave a great end to a character who started out as a silly ranting man on the internet making us laugh every week. And now that great end has been, essentially, retconned. Undone. Status Quo is God. The Critic learned nothing. His sacrifice was pointless. Know that hero we were all crying about a couple months ago, for taking on the Plot Hole and saving everything? He's now been replaced by Douchey McNitpick, zapping mistakes from the sky. A kick in the teeth to anyone who thought TBF's conclusion was good or moving or emotionally satisfying or an example of character development and a fitting end for a great character. It's like saying "You wanted a hero, huh? A nice heroic and moving end for a beloved character? PSYCH! He's going back to his usual show, his usual shtick, suffering every week for your amusement while his ultimate fate, keeping the universe from collapsing on itself, has been taken over by this caricature of a troll. That's what you WANTED, right?"

I don't want new NC reviews because of something like that. That leaves a sour taste in my mouth. It makes me sad. It makes me angry. It makes me want to yell mean things into the internet like "spineless coward" and "heartless bastard" even though those things aren't true at all. It makes me so ashamed that I said I wasn't that crazy about Demo Reel from the start, that it took me a few episodes to really get into it. That I only started writing fic for it a few days ago. 

I'm going to curl up in a ball with my plushies now. I'd say I'm going to watch NC reviews, or listen to Rob's commentary of TBF, but neither of those options are viable right now

m I in a minority here? Am I taking this too personally? Am I reading too much into the actions of an internet reviewer

Comments

[emeriin.livejournal.com]

He wants to be loved by everyone. The TBF commentary proved that. But fuck him, this was Les Mis cruel, this was Sliders cruel, you can't fucking undo everything "character development/sticking to my guns/there's going to be so much more/the past needs to be let go off"-related you've ever said. I hope his guilt breaks him.

Okay, positive: Doug's acting was brilliant. There. That's it.

[twetwe123.livejournal.com]

I cried at TBF and I don't understand the rage. It's not about the characters, it's about Doug. For what 4 and a half years he produced an episode every week, worked his ARSE off every December, knew during cons and on honeymoon that he'd have to come back to more work, and after almost 5 years he burned out and mistook that for needing to move on. Almost 5 years of constant work. 6 months on he realises he's made a mistake and wants to keep doing his work with the passion that kept him going for almost 5 years. He's given SO MUCH to us with such intensity and wants to go back to what he loves after he has his breath back. He mistook burnout for an ending and made sure it was the best damn ending we could have. Why does this warrant so much rage? Especially since there is plenty of room for more Demo Reel. They bought the studio, explicitly said there'll be more time between Critic episodes, and contracted the actors.

[astra-aurora.livejournal.com]

Am I in a minority here? Am I taking this too personally? Am I reading too much into the actions of an internet reviewer?

Nope. You're acting like any fan who's been dicked over by a fuck-up with a show they like, and I honestly can't blame you. I never really watched either NC or DR, but I loved To Boldly Flee, and that's one of the shittiest ways to fuck the ending up I can imagine.

Honestly, I'm worried about Doug. He sounded so enthused about Demo Reel, and now with this coming up... I hope that nothing's gone horribly wrong.

*sends hugs and bunnies*

[gethenian.livejournal.com]

Am I taking this too personally? Am I reading too much into the actions of an internet reviewer

Yes.

NOW BEFORE YOU GET PISSED OFF AT ME FOR HAVING AN UNPOPULAR OPINION... remember who I work for. Who my best friend is. The reviewer whose reputation on the site is often condensed into "I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry..."

I know about taking shit on the internet too seriously.

Here's what you have to remember:

It's FINE to have an emotional response to a piece of media. Media is all about giving people emotional reactions -- joy, anger, sorrow, nostalgia, etc. etc. etc. It's fine when those reactions are reactions to the fiction and its presentation. (Or even fact presented in a way that is very deeply affecting -- the first time I saw Werner Herzog's "Cave of Forgotten Dreams," it did make me tear up, and that is nothing but a bunch of people filming cave paintings and commenting on what they depict and who might have made them.)

Doug is an extremely talented screen performer. He has an electric charisma and extraordinarily emotive performing style.

Entertainment sometimes is -- and MUST be -- more about what the audience wants than what the creator wants. Sometimes, what you create is something you do to meet a demand, which you benefit from.

That's not always a bad thing. If you have a product people want, and you have the option to sell the hell out of it, and if that gets you the kind of feedback and cash that allow you to live off of it, then YOU SELL THE HELL OUT OF THAT.

We should all be so lucky. Seriously. I've been on DeviantArt for 8 years and in all that time, I've made less from my art than I have working a part-time job for minimum wage in the past 8 MONTHS. I've made NOTHING working as an artist and co-producer, set director, and occasional co-writer for Brows Held High. I'm still doing all of these things, but I'm also still fishing for the one creative thing I can do that will be the magical thing people WANT to see and that will benefit me monetarily. I have a children's book being published as soon as I finish the illustrations. If that's the One Magical Thing, even though I never meant it to be a series, I'll keep doing it, because that's the thing people want from me. FOR MONEY! Goddamn!

That's not a bad thing. It's not torture to have to use your creativity to do something thousands of people want to set aside time to watch you do every time you do it. Doing NC episodes isn't something Doug has to sacrifice every other project to do -- he could always do them once every 2 weeks, or something, while working on other projects.

Doug is one lucky sonofabitch (with apologies to Mrs. Walker, who I'm sure is a lovely woman). He has CHOICES. He has TIME. He has the ability to dedicate himself to his creative, independent pursuits and he gets to live off of that.

Don't be sad that he tried something that didn't work. If you're going to be sad for anyone, be sad for those of us producers and artists who live from paycheck to paycheck with CENTS to spare, who only do that by working 2 jobs and living with our parents, who give up food and sleep and even sacrifice time with our families for the sake of helping each other out or cranking out commissions we're painfully underpaid for and which will only be seen by 100 people or less, EVER.

Doug isn't a victim here. Far from it. He has creative pursuits and the freedom to see which ones are successful and which ones are not and the time to test that over MONTHS or YEARS. Meanwhile, TGWTG isn't really very good at promoting its other producers a lot of the time. Producers largely rely on just being on the site to generate view counts -- and it DOES -- but it isn't good enough for most of them to live on, and artists and other crew get no recognition or promotion beyond a link under our producers' videos or a mention in the credits, if that.

[c]

[lit-wolf.livejournal.com]

Want to clarify up front that yes, I too am very sad that Demo Reel was gone. I think it was finally hitting its stride, finally felt like it was getting solid ground under its feet, so it hurts to see the plugged pulled on it.

But that said... I didn't see this as a mean-spirited way of bringing back the Critic. Undoing the awesome ending of To Boldly Flee? Yes, and that's a bummer. But I'm a fan of science fiction and fantasy stories; I'm used to things being undone and, honestly, I thought this was well done. Amazingly shot, loved the funny bits (Nella in the tiny car, LOVE!), and I was glad that he at least connected the end of Demo Reel to the start of the new Critic.

I know a lot of writers. My friends are amateur writers (all of us hoping to get published one day), I have one successfully published author in my family, and I follow a lot of writers online. One thing I notice is that, when people get really passionate about a character, they can describe it as the character taking on a life on its own. That's why I was so hooked on the Critic meeting his writer at the end of TBF, because I have heard writers talk about their characters telling them what to do and making demands on their story. I have not yet felt that way about any of my characters yet but I keep working on them and I hope one will speak back to me one day.

Anyway, my point being that this felt less like Doug being bullied into writing the Critic again and more like a nagging doubt wedged itself into his mind, that he missed the character, and the Critic spoke up to say that he wasn't done yet. At least that's how I'm reading into this.

And a lot of people think this has to do with whiny fans. I don't believe that to be the case at all. For all the people who were sad about the end of the Critic, I don't think many would say they disliked To Boldly Flee's ending. Doug had to know that was a hit and that people praised him. It all comes down to viewing numbers. Even if people weren't actively hating Demo Reel, they weren't watching it. I've talked with people online who dropped off after the second or third episode, and a couple who didn't even give the first episode a chance. Of my real life friends who watch Channel Awesome videos, only one or two were keeping up with Demo Reel. Even if people weren't saying it was horrible, they weren't flocking to it like the Walker brothers had probably hoped.

In the long run, they love what they do but this is still a business for them. They gotta do what makes them money. An author wouldn't keep writing books for a series if the series was bombing. They'd stop and try writing something else, looking for the hit. That's why movies that everyone says sucked but did really well in ticket sales for whatever reason get sequels (Smurfs, Chipmunk movies, Twilight) and stuff with huge fan followings that bombed get nothing (Firefly/Serenity). It's why crappy reality shows that everyone calls 'guilty pleasures' go on for seasons and seasons while actual good shows with compelling drama and characters get canceled after only one season.

Just my thoughts for you. I hope after a night of emotions running high, we can all take a deep breath and see where things go from here.

[emeriin.livejournal.com]

Aw fuck, someone just compared it to John Smith and the Tenth Doctor in Human Nature/Family Of Blood. 1) Doug, you don't even watch Doctor Who, stop mimicking Ten so perfectly with your writing. 2) The comparison is so perfect and cruel that I'm gonna cry again. :(